Handle and cleaner assembly for files and rasps



June 20, 1961 R. A. HARRIST 2,989,315

HANDLE AND CLEANER ASSEMBLY FOR FILES AND RASPS Filed May 26, 1959 a INVENTOR I'M J) :0 ,9 Q 16 J j ]fZ $erfAHarrz$T ATTORNEY States atnt Patented June 20, 1961 2,989,315 HANDLE AND CLEANER ASSEMBLY FOR FILES AND RASPS Robert A. Harrist, 33 Tivertcn Parkway, Worcester 2, Mass. Filed May 26, 1959, Ser. No. 815,925 S CIaims. (Cl. 279-42) 1 This invention relates to an improved file handle construction, which is adapted for use, interchangeably, with all of the various types and sizes of files and/ or rasps.

Files and rasps, as distinguished from most other hand tools, are never equipped at the factory with permanently attached handles. However, for temporary handle attachment, the inner end of every file has an integral tapered or pointed tang, whose length is proportionate to that of the-file, and whose width depends on the cross section of-the files material. Before any file is used, its tapered or pointed tang must be driven home and firmly anchored within a long hole or socket of suitable size that is provided by an ordinary wooden handle member.

. These customary crude wooden file handles are a source of much trouble, delay and expense in many machine shops and other places (notably tool and die making establishments) where files are extensively used. Large stocks of these wooden file handles, having various sizes of tang-receiving holes or sockets, must always be maintained. Many such wooden handles are split asunder by the act of driving a files tapered tang too forcibly into their holes or sockets. Also, large numbers of these wooden file handles have to be discarded after a single use, because their sockets become unduly enlarged by the development of play between tang and socket during a filing operation.

Also, in numerous establishments where filing is extensively practiced, many of the files themselves are prematurely discarded or put aside, simply because the operators fail to keep at hand, or within convenient reach, the proper equipment (a small brush or card of stifl? wires) by which to clean out at frequent intervals, the metal filings which invariably fill up and clog the spaces or gullets between the teeth or ridges of every file.

The primary object of my invention is to overcome. and eliminate all of these difliculties and handicaps heretofore encountered in the use and maintenance of ordinary files and/ or rasps.

T that end, my invention provides a simple and inexpensivefile handle, preferably of molded plastic, having ajset of tang-gripping jaws which are so shaped and socketed as to be operative, selectively, on all of the sizes and shapes of tanks that are provided by present day files and rasps. The hand grip portion of my improved file handle is made hollow, for the containment, always close at hand to, any files use, of an efficient file-cleaning brush or card, the latters handle, as herein shown, being provided by the detachable closure cap of said hollow hand gripportion I Other and furtherobjects and. advantages of my invention will become apparent from the following detailed description; taken in connection-with the accompanying illustrative drawings, in which: 5

' FIGS. "-1,-2 and 3 are fragmentary perspective views, showingja variety of'types and sizes of tapered tanks of files. n Whi h-" he gripping jaws of 'my improved .file handle are effective;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the file handle and cleaner assembly of my invention, and showing the cleaning brush in the act of being withdrawn from the handle, for use on any file whose tang is chucked or gripped by the handles jaws.

FIG. 5 is a larger scale view, in end elevation, of the integral contractible tang-gripping jaws of my improved handle.

FIG. 6 is a smaller scale sectional view, on line 6-6 of FIG 5, showing the taper of certain of the internal surfaces of said jaws.

FIG 7 is a smaller scale sectional view, on line 7-7 of FIG. 5, showing the taper of other internal surfaces of said jaws.

FIG. 8 is a side elevational view, partly in section, of the jaw-contracting sleeve of my improved handle.

FIGS. 9, l0 and 11 are cross sectional views, substantially on line AA of FIG. 6, showing the jaws in contacted condition on each of the various types and sizes of file tangs illustrated by FIGS. 1, 2 and 3.

FIG. 1 depicts a generally flat tapered file tang 1, of the type and size usually provided by all long files that are made from relatively wide flat stock, such as mill files, flat files, half round files, pillar files, knife edge files, crossing files, cabinet files and the like. FIG. 2 depicts a smaller but similarly tapered fiat tank 2, as usually provided by all short flat-stock files of the above-mentioned types or designations. Fig. 3 depicts a narrow pointed file tang 3, of the type usually provided by files made from other-thar1-flat stock, such as square files, round or rat-tail files, three-cornered files, and the like.

My improved file handle obtains an effective gripping action on all three types of ,file ,tangs 1, 2 and 3. Said handle, preferably molded from plastic material, provides a hollow tapered hand grip portion 4, open at its outer or larger end. There the wall thickness is slightly re duced, as shown at 5, for the snug fit reception over said open end of a detachable closure cap 6. Suitably secured to the interior of said cap is a member 7, having a transverse rectangular recess 8, wherein is snugly received and firmly cemented the end of a wooden backing strip 9 that carries a file brush or card 10, of stiff steel wires.

With closure cap 6 in its normal position, the brush or card 10 is housed withinthe hollow hand grip portion 4 of my improved file handle and is thus protected from access thereto of dirt or other foreign material that would be detrimental to its use. Said brush is always instantly available for the cleaning of any. file with which my improved handle is being used. With knowledge of thisfact, any average file operator, when using my improved file handle, will have resort, much more frequently than would otherwise be the case, to beneficial cleanings of any file which he is using, and to which said handle is attached. In these file'cleaning operations, which involve only momentary interruptions of the filing job, the closure cap 6 serves as a handle for the brush or card It and thus is not likely to become lost or mislaid.

As best shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the handle material, from an external annular flange 11 at the inner smaller end of hand grip portion 4, provides an elongated externally cylindrical extension 12 of reduced diameter, having an external taper 13 at its end. This integral cylindric extension 12, cored out internally as hereinafter described, is cut into quarters, for the greater part of its length, by a pair of diametrical slots 14 and 15 of appreciable width, that stand at right angles to each other. These relatively wide slots 14 and 15 divide the material of cylindric extension 12 into a set of four elongated jaws 16, 16, 16, 16, united only at their base portions, in the vicinity of the handles annular flangev 11. Thus it is that said jaws, by the flexibility of their material, can be drawn together toward each other, for effective gripping by their cored out internal surfaces of an inserted file tang, as hereinafter described.

This contraction of these tang-gripping jaws 16, 16, 16, 16, is effected by a surrounding sleeve 17 (see FIG. 8) of metal or other suitable material. This sleeve 17 has internal screw threading 18 which engages with matching interrupted screw threading 19 formed on the jaws arcuate exterior surfaces. The bore of this sleeve 17, beyond its internal threading 18, is of gradually reducing diameter, as shown at 20, in FIG. 8, such as to taper down to a smaller diameter than the external diameter of the jaw-forming cylindric extension 12 of my improved file handle. Thus it is that when the sleeve 17 is manually screwed inwardly (in the direction of flange 11) on the externally threaded jaws 16, 16, 16, 16, these jaws will remain in their full-open tang-receiving condition, with their separating slots 14 and 15 at normal maximum width, until the interior tapering at the sleeves outer end comes into engagement (see FIG. 4) with the exterior tapering 13 at the outer ends of the jaws. Only then will the inward screwing of sleeve 17 procure a contraction and tightening of said jaws on a file tang or the like that has been entered and properly positioned between the specially cored-out interior surfaces of said jaws, now to be described.

According to my invention, these interior surfaces of the four jaws 16, 16 are so shaped and related to one another, as to adapt said jaws selectively, and with equal effectiveness, to the gripping of all three of the styles or sizes of file tangs that are depicted at 1, 2 and 3 respectively in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. For accommodating any large fiat tapered tang such as shown at 1, in FIG. 1, the four jaws, along one dividing slot 14, are formed from end to end with opposed matching shallow recesses 21, 21. At the tips of the jaws, these recesses 21, 21 extend outwardly from the center for a considerable distance, so that the space 22 of rectangular cross section which they combine to subtend is of proper width at the tips of the jaws to accommodate the relatively wide base 22' of any such large tang 1.

From the tips of the jaws, the opposite outer or end surfaces of this wide tang space 22 are convergent toward each other, as shown at 23, 23, FIG. 6, in substantial conformity with the taper (about 7 /2 of the edge surfaces 23', 23' of any large flat file tang 1. Also, the opposite wide recess surfaces parallel with slot 14, are very slightly convergent, as shown at 24, 24, FIG. 7, in substantial conformity with the very low angle taper that is usually imparted to the flat side faces 24', 24' of any such large tang 1. Thus it is that when any such large tapered tang of a file or other tool is entered and seated in the jaw space 22 of my improved handle, the contraction of the jaws, by turning of sleeve 17, will obtain a substantially full-area gripping action (see FIG. 9) on four surfaces of such a tang 1. v

For accommodating any appreciably smaller fiat tapered tang, such as shown at 2 in FIG. 2, the four jaws 16, 16, 16, 16, along the other dividing slot 15, are formed from end to end with opposed matching shallow recesses 25, 25. At the tips of the jaws, these recesses 25, 25 extend outwardly from the center for a relatively short distance, as compared to the distance along the slot 14 through which the jaw recesses 21, 21 extend. Thus the space 26 of rectangular cross section which the four recesses 25, 25 combine to subtend, is appreciably narrower throughout than the similar space 26 of rectangular cross section which is subtended by the four jaw recesses 21, 21 along the dividing slot 14. But this space 26 at the tips of the jaws is of proper width to accommodate the relatively narrow base 26' of any such smaller flat tapered file tang as that depicted at 2 in FIG. 2.

Furthermore, this narrower tang receiving space 26 along the dividing slot 15, provides opposed end surfaces which are convergent, as shown at 27, 27, FIG. 7, in substantial conformity with the usual 7 /2 taper of the edges 27', 27' of such a smaller flat tang 2. Also, its other opposed surfaces paralleling the slot 15 are very slightly convergent, as shown at 28, 28 FIG. 6, to conform with the low angle taper between the flat faces 28, 28' of such a tang 2. Thus my improved handle, by the contraction of its jaws, obtains a substantially full area gripping action (see FIG. 10) on all four surfaces of any smaller size flat tapered tang, such as shown at 2 in FIG. 2.

It is particularly to be noted that the two axially elongated tang-receiving spaces 22 and 26, by virtue of crossing each other at right angles, establish a set of four right-angle corners or edges 29, 29, in re-entrant relation to the central crossing zone 30. Since these edges 29, 29 are formed by the intersections of convergent or sloping jaw surfaces, the edges themselves, from the tips of the jaws 16, 16, converge toward each other throughout the length of the jaws.

The central jaw space 30 which is bounded by these four convergent edges 29, 29 is ideally adapted to the reception and seating of a narrow pointed tang, such as shown at 3 in FIG. 3. This is true, whether such tangs cross-section be polygonal, as shown, or of generally circular shape. In either case, the contraction of the jaws 16, 16, by turning of sleeve 17, will draw the edges 29, 29 inwardly, into firm full-length gripping engagement with such a pointed tang, as shown in FIG. 11.

I claim:

1. In a tool handle of the class which provides at one end an elongated generally cylindrical externally-threaded chuck portion, divided by a pair of crossed diametrical slots into four elongated relatively flexible jaws, whose grip upon and release of a tool tang inserted therebetween is eflected by endwise movement on said chuck portion of a sleeve member, having internal screw threads in engagement with the interrupted external screw threads of said jaws, the material of said jaws being internally cut back in symmetrical relation to one of said cross slots, to form a socket for the reception of a relatively wide tool tang, and the material of said jaws being internally cut back in symmetrical relation to the other of said cross slots, to form a socket for the reception of a relatively narrow tool tang.

2. A tool handle as claimed in claim 1, and having a hand grip portion integral with said chuck portion.

3. A tool handle as claimed in claim 1, in which the opposite end surfaces of each socket converge toward each other from the tips of the jaws.

4. A tool handle as claimed in claim 1, in which each sockets side surfaces paralleling the associated slot, are slightly convergent toward each other, from the tips of the jaws.

5. A tool handle as claimed in claim 4, in which the respective sockets side surfaces set each other to form four corners or edges, in re-entrant relation to the central jaw space, for the gripping of any pointed tang inserted in said central space.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 264,492 Thayer Sept. 19, 1882 337,244 Chant-tell Mar. 2, 1886 346,219 Perry June 8, 1886 386,263 Pedersen July 17, 1888 742,640 Harold Oct. 27, 1903 2,842,020 Tarquinio July 8, 1958 

